Divers Paths to Justice - English - Forest Peoples Programme

Divers Paths to Justice: Legal pluralism and the rights of indigenous peoples inSoutheast AsiaThe land could be “reserved” from the foreign concession for the nativeowners through the clear demarcation of their holdings. If possible, aconsolidation of native holdings was attempted by moving isolated nativestogether in grants of land in close proximity to each other. The other methodof settling native claims to land was by compensation in cash. Finally, theProclamation set strict terms for foreigners who did not respect nativerights: they would be evicted from the land. 6Proclamation III was the first land law that made any attempt to recognisethe nature of native land rights and to provide the mechanism by whichthese rights could be formalised in the eyes of the Company. Unfortunately,time would show that Governor Creagh and several of his successors wereunable to fully uphold the letter of this law. With less than thirty Companyadministrators and £30,000 for annual expenses, the administration founditself unable to adequately settle native claims to land. 7In the following section I present a case that illustrates the treatment ofnative land rights and the clear violations of the principles laid out inProclamation III of 1889, drawing attention to the vast gap between writtenland laws and the actual implementation of these laws.Count Gelose d’Elsloo Tobacco EstateBy 1888 the Dutch tobacco planter Count Gelose d’Elsloo had acquiredthirty square miles along the Kudat peninsula on the north coast of Borneo.He found that the progress of plantation development was impeded by the“unexpected difficulty arising from native rights” on his tobacco estate. Inan exchange of letters between the Count and the Kudat District OfficerDavies, the Count explained that “there will be great difficulty in settling‘Native Rights’...if we proceed on the plan of cutting out the land to whichnative people are entitled under Proclamation No. III of 1889”. He went onto say that if they did cut out all the land from the Count’s estate to which6 Proclamation No III of 1889, North Borneo Herald and Gazette, 1 Feb.1889, pp.53-4.7 Tregonning 1956:5085